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| Deep in rural Western Australia, Pilbara Minerals’ vast processing plant looms above the red dirt, quivering as tons of a lithium ore slurry move through its pipes. | 在西澳大利亚州农村地区的深处，皮尔巴拉矿业公司巨大的加工厂赫然耸立在红土地上，厂房随着成吨的锂矿浆从管道里经过而轻微颤动。 |
| The plant turns the ore from a nearby quarry into spodumene, a greenish crystalline powder that is about 6 percent lithium and sells for about $5,700 a ton. From there, the spodumene is shipped to China, where it is further refined so it can be used in the batteries that power goods like cellphones and electric cars. | 这家工厂把附近采石场运来的矿石转变为锂辉石，这是一种大约含6%的锂、每短吨售价约为5700美元的绿色晶状粉末。从那里，这些锂辉石将被运往中国进行进一步提炼，让其成为能为手机和电动汽车等产品供电的电池材料。 |
| Australia mines about 53 percent of the world’s supply of lithium, and virtually all of it is sold to China. But now the Australian government wants to break the world’s dependence on China for processing the minerals driving the green revolution. | 全球约53%的锂供应量由澳大利亚开采，而且这些矿产几乎全部销往中国。但现在，澳大利亚政府想打破世界对中国加工这种推动绿色革命的矿物的依赖。 |
| Pilbara Minerals, the country’s largest independent lithium miner, is among the companies exploring a new model for producing battery chemicals — done closer to where the lithium is mined and sold to allies like the United States and South Korea. | 澳大利亚最大的独立锂矿商皮尔巴拉矿业公司是正在探索生产电池材料新模式的公司之一，这些公司准备在距离锂的开采地更近的地方对矿石进行加工，然后将其出售给美国和韩国等盟国。 |
| The challenges of getting such an industry underway are daunting. China has an enormous head start, with years of experience and hundreds of lithium refining plants, and a steadily tightening grip on the world’s battery-making facilities. Australia’s more rigorous workplace standards will also make it harder to compete with China on price, analysts said, even as some in Australia have argued that they will result in a more trustworthy, premium product. | 将这个行业发展起来的挑战艰巨。中国在该行业拥有巨大的领先优势，有着多年经验及数百家提炼锂的工厂，并正在稳步地加强对世界电池制造设施的控制。分析师说，澳大利亚对工作场所有更严格的标准，这也将使其更难在价格上与中国竞争，尽管有些澳大利亚人提出理由说，这些标准将产生更值得信赖的优质产品。 |
| “Consumers will vote using their feet, and they will buy electric vehicles, or even solar panels at home, based on the costs,” said Marina Zhang, a researcher at the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney. | “消费者将用脚投票，他们购买电动汽车、甚至家用太阳能电池板时考虑的是价格，”悉尼科技大学澳中关系研究所研究员玛瑞娜·张（音）说。 |
| Pilbara Minerals is working with the Australian tech company Calix on a project to refine spodumene to a lithium phosphate salt — a key step in readying the material used in batteries. The companies are expected to make a final decision by the end of the year whether to invest up to 70 million Australian dollars, or around $47 million, to build a demonstration plant. | 皮尔巴拉矿业正在与澳大利亚科技公司Calix合作，开展将锂辉石提炼成磷酸锂盐的项目，这是将矿石变成电池材料的一个关键步骤。预计这两家公司将在年底前做出最终决定，是否投资最高7000万澳元（约合3.26亿人民币）建设一家示范厂。 |
| Dale Henderson, the chief executive of Pilbara Minerals, and other proponents have argued that refining lithium at home would create jobs, reduce the impact of shipping — 94 percent of shipped spodumene is thrown out as waste — and secure supply chains for battery chemicals amid rising geopolitical tensions. | 皮尔巴拉矿业的首席执行官戴尔·亨德森和其他支持这样做的人提出理由说，在国内提炼锂将创造就业机会，减少海运锂辉石的影响（94%的锂辉石将作为废弃物扔掉），还能在地缘政治局势日益紧张的情况下，确保生产电池所需化学品的供应链。 |
| Refining lithium would also allow Australia to tap into the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration policy enacted last year. The law aims to cut into China’s green energy dominance by offering loans or subsidies to companies in countries, like Australia, that have free trade agreements with the United States. | 提炼锂还能使澳大利亚受益于拜登政府去年颁布的《通胀削减法案》。该法旨在通过向与美国签订自由贸易协定的国家（如澳大利亚）的公司提供贷款或补贴，来削弱中国在绿色能源领域的主导地位。 |
| At the Group of 7 summit last weekend, President Biden and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia jointly announced projects intended to strengthen the supply chain for “critical minerals” used in clean energy. | 在上周末的七国集团峰会上，美国总统拜登与澳大利亚总理阿尔巴尼斯共同宣布了旨在加强用于清洁能源的“关键矿物”供应链的项目。 |
| The Australian government has already put hundreds of millions of dollars toward supporting the lithium refining industry, betting that customers will seek out lithium supply from a country that is more environmentally friendly and has a strong rule of law. | 澳大利亚政府已为支持锂提炼行业投入了数亿美元的资金，它相信客户将从一个更环保、法治程度更高的国家寻求锂供应。 |
| “If you have more of the supply chain in a country which has very strong governance, and a very, very safe and trustworthy business environment, then consumers can have more confidence in the products that they buy,” said Allison Britt, a director at Geoscience Australia, a government agency. | “如果供应链的更多部分位于一个拥有很强的治理能力，以及非常、非常安全和值得信赖的商业环境的国家，那么消费者就会对他们购买的产品有着更大的信心，”政府机构澳大利亚地质局的主任艾莉森·布里特说。 |
| A government report last year forecast that 20 percent of global lithium refining could take place in Australia by 2027, up from less than 1 percent. In some cases, top officials have set even loftier goals. | 去年的一份政府报告预测，到2027年时，全球20%的锂提炼可能在澳大利亚进行，而目前的比例不到1%。在一些情况下，高级官员们设定了更高的目标。 |
| “I want to make sure that we use the lithium and nickel and other products that we have to make batteries here,” Mr. Albanese, the prime minister, said in a speech. “That’s part of the vision of protecting our national economy going forward.” | “我想确保我们利用我们拥有的锂和镍以及其他产品在这里制造电池，”阿尔巴尼斯总理在一次讲话中说。“这是保护我们国民经济向前发展的愿景的一部分。” |
| But Australia would have to make significant strides to get closer to China in refining. | 但澳大利亚要想在锂提炼能力上追赶中国，就必须迈出更大步伐。 |
| So far, Australia has just two facilities to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide, used to make cathodes, with a third under construction. All have suffered from major construction delays related to labor shortages, as well as cost overruns. | 到目前为止，澳大利亚只有两个生产用于制造阴极的电池级氢氧化锂的设施，还有第三个设施正在建设中。这些设施都因劳动力短缺和成本超支而出现了重大施工延误。 |
| The largest facility, co-owned by the American chemical maker Albemarle and the Australian miner Mineral Resources, is being expanded with the goal of becoming “one of the world’s largest lithium production facilities,” according to a statement from Albemarle. Last year it produced its first battery-grade lithium hydroxide — more than a year behind schedule. | 这三个设施中最大的一个由美国化学品制造商雅宝公司和澳大利亚矿产资源公司共同拥有，目前正在扩建，据雅宝的声明，它有望成为“世界上最大的锂生产设施之一”。去年，该设施首次生产出了电池级氢氧化锂——比计划晚了一年多。 |
| A big challenge facing Australia is cost. The investment needed to establish a lithium hydroxide plant is roughly two-and-a-half times higher in Australia than in China, said John Stover, a portfolio manager at Tribeca Investment Partners, citing data from the bank UBS. | 澳大利亚面临的一大挑战是成本。特里贝卡投资合伙人的投资组合经理约翰·斯托弗引用瑞银的数据说，在澳大利亚建设氢氧化锂工厂所需的投资大约是在中国建厂的两倍半。 |
| “Historically, Australia has shipped unprocessed ore to other countries to process,” he said. “That change in mind-set, I think, is going to be tricky.” | “澳大利亚将未加工的矿石运往其他国家进行加工的历史悠久，”他说。“改变这种思维方式我认为不太容易。” |
| Chris Ellison, the owner of Mineral Resources, said the government must make it easier for foreign companies to invest in Australian lithium refining through incentives like funding and tax breaks. | 澳大利亚矿产资源公司的拥有者克里斯·埃里森说，政府必须通过提供资金和税收减免等激励措施，让外国公司投资澳大利亚的锂提炼行业变得更容易。 |
| “They are being offered grants to build in Europe, the U.S. and places like Vietnam from the American government,” he said in a presentation to investors in February. “We need the Australian government to come to the party on that.” | “美国政府正在向他们提供在欧洲、美国和越南等地建厂的拨款，”埃里森今年2月向投资者介绍情况时说。“我们需要让澳大利亚政府加入到这个行列中来。” |
| The Australian government must also weigh acute geopolitical concerns. Lithium is instrumental to the country’s relationship with China, said Corey Lee Bell, of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney. | 澳大利亚政府也必须权衡严重的地缘政治问题。锂对澳中关系至关重要，悉尼科技大学澳中关系研究所的科里·李·贝尔说。 |
| “If we were to cut that supply, I think it would be a very, very big issue,” Dr. Bell said. | “如果我们切断供应的话，我认为那将是一个非常、非常大的问题，”贝尔说。 |
| Yet Australia has hinted that it might be comfortable doing just that. | 不过，澳大利亚已暗示它可能并不担心这个问题。 |
| Speaking last month, Madeleine King, Australia’s resources minister, said the country had an important role to play in pushing back against the “concentration” of critical minerals industries in China, which she said led to “fragility, volatility and unreliability.” The government has also indicated that it might limit foreign ownership of critical mineral resources. | 澳大利亚资源部长马德琳·金上个月表示，澳大利亚在抵制关键矿产行业在中国“集中”的做法上发挥着重要作用，她说，这种“集中”导致了“脆弱、易变和不可靠性”。澳大利亚政府也已表示，可能会对外国拥有的关键矿产资源股份进行限制。 |
| In 2020, previously cordial relations between Australia and China took a turn after Scott Morrison, then the prime minister, ordered an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. China then blocked some Australian imports, including coal and wine. Australia escalated the dispute to the World Trade Organization and revoked the state of Victoria’s participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. | 2020年，时任总理莫里森下令对新冠病毒大流行进行溯源调查后，澳中曾经友好的关系发生了变化。中国在那之后禁止了一些澳大利亚产品的进口，包括煤炭和葡萄酒。澳大利亚升级了这场争端，将中国的进口禁令告到了世贸组织，并取消了维多利亚州对中国“一带一路”倡议的参与。 |
| There have been signs in recent months that the tensions are cooling. China announced last week that it would lift its suspension of Australian timber imports after ending an unofficial embargo on Australian coal. | 最近几个月，有迹象表明澳中紧张关系有所缓和。在结束了非正式的澳大利亚煤炭进口禁令后，中国上周宣布将恢复暂停的澳大利亚木材进口。 |
| But the relationship remains volatile. Australia “needs to have a little bit more of a say over the destiny of its resources,” said Ross Gregory, a partner at New Electric Partners, an advisory firm. | 但两国关系仍不稳定。澳大利亚“需要对本国资源的命运有更多的发言权”，咨询公司New Electric Partners的合伙人罗斯·格雷戈里说。 |
| Despite the barriers, Australia’s control of the raw material gives it a chance to assert influence further down the supply chain, said Joe Lowry, the founder of the advisory firm Global Lithium. | 尽管存在障碍，澳大利亚对原材料的控制让其有机会对供应链的更下游施加影响，咨询公司Global Lithium的创始人乔·洛瑞说。 |
| “The guy with the rock wins,” Mr. Lowry said. “And Australia’s got the rock.” | “掌握矿产者赢，”洛瑞说。“而澳大利亚拥有矿产。” |
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